Description

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global disease, worsened by its dangerous synergy with HIV/AIDS and increasing incidences of multi-drug and extensively-drug-resistant strains. More aggressive strains such as the East-Asian/Beijing genotype family are conquering the globe and immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) increasingly occurs in HIV/M. tuberculosis co-infected individuals under antiretroviral therapy. To reverse this negative trend, increased efforts are needed within academia and industry. Recently, targeted activities have started to translate basic findings into the formulation of drug, vaccine and diagnostic candidates that are entering field trials. However, these efforts are stymied by enormous gaps in our knowledge about specific mechanisms that underlie the relationship between host, pathogen and environment in TB.

This Keystone Symposium on TB will focus on these relationships covering basic and clinical research. Topics include the molecular genetics and biochemistry of the pathogen with emphasis on unique lineage and growth state-specific features and the immunology and molecular genetics of the host during latency, reactivation and active disease. Because the outcomes of TB are influenced by genetic, epigenetic and environmental influences on both host and pathogen, the meeting will highlight research on host-pathogen crosstalk at the basic cellular and molecular level as well as human studies that determine the basis of susceptibility to and severity of tuberculosis. Finally, the most recent results on clinical trials of drug and vaccine candidates will be discussed in depth. It is hoped that this meeting will provide not only deeper insights into the complex crosstalk between host and pathogen, but also information on novel measures for TB control including pre- and post-exposure vaccination strategies, combat of extensively drug-resistant strains and novel therapeutic stratagems to avoid IRIS.